The tale of two photos

Two of my photos are currently on exhibit at Neutral Grounds' "First Anniversary Photo Exhibit" at Philamlife East Side Lobby, Philamlife Building, UN Avenue, Ermita Manila. Exhibit originally runs from July 24-July 31, 2009, but it has been extended until August 7.

These photos happen to have been selected in Neutral Ground as photo of the day. I was never expecting the site administrators to choose it. The site rule allows us only to post one (1) photo a day, so we might as well choose what we think are our best photos.

Choosing from a thousand photo in my stream is a difficult task. Aside from the technicality of the photo, I have always adhered to at least two more criteria which I must follow: (1) that the photo should be able to evoke thoughts and emotions from the viewers, and (2) it must tell a story

Idlip


I took this photo in one of my photo walks with my Flickr group, Flickristasindios sometime in September 2008. This was taken in Plaza Lorenzo infront of Binondo Church in Manila. As always, the plaza is teeming with people willing to be subjects--who would even strike a pose or let go of that smile. Whenever possible, I want my photos to be candid--one that is taken by patiently waiting and capturing them at the right moment. Seeing this sleeping child beside their wares for sale caught my attention. Suddenly, thoughts came rushing to my mind--How many street children do we have now? How many children have to work with their parents to survive? How many are homeless? How many of them do not enjoy the liberty of enjoying their childhood?

Being a father, this image is special and has a personal message to me--What if I am the father of this boy?

Pag-asa


My wife and I thought of bringing the kids out after the new year celebrations. Year 2008 has been quite a sail, and with my late Mom who was at the time still in her sick bed, but we have to give them some enjoyment so we brought them to the Manila Ocean Park. My boys enjoyed the day out, especially Gelo, who is my accidental model in this photo. We have already finished the rounds of seeing the marine life in the giant aquariums, and we decided to slow down a bit and rest our aching feet. My son, Gelo, found a seat in the ongoing exhibit abut Jose Rizal. While looking at him 5-6 meters away, I noticed that the backdrop was the image of Jose Rizal. I immediately grabbed my camera and aimed at him. He smiled back, ready to strike a cutesy pose, but I told him to sit still, and just look at my camera--and I loved the result--fitting for the famous Jose Rizal line: Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan. (The youth is the hope of the motherland.)

Although these photos did not manage to win the Photo of the Week that would eventually qualify them for the Photo of the Month and the Photo of the Year, I am still glad that there is a little recognition of my work as a photographer.

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Profiting from blogging--finally!

Profiting from blogging--by putting up spaces for ads in my blog-- never crossed my mind. I just thought it would defeat the purpose of blogging and expressing, and aesthetics-wise, those flashing ads would just be a clutter. Honestly, too, my blog will not be sale-able since it does not enjoy the hits that would make any client interested in my blog. So I am enjoying my blog layout as spic-and-span as it can be. Forget the fraction of cents I would get from the clicks.

Anyway, I also wanted to make blogging more profitable. The reason why I started my travel blog, is to get clients who would get me into projects where I could enjoy both photography and blogging. I think I have an edge since I can write anything under the sun. The waiting seems too long. Besides, blogging took a back seat for almost two years, and regaining "popularity" and regaining old contacts from the blogosphere, would be almost impossible! Thanks to some flickr and facebook friends who occasionally drop by my blog.

When a project to manage a website came, I immediately grabbed the opportunity. It is once-in-a-blue-moon offer and thinking it would add spice to a rather monotonous work would make me a better person--and perhaps might lead me to a possible career change--maybe at this point is for some diversion of my excess creative juices. It is not blogging per se. Rather, it is a website management work. I love the idea of creating stories out of tons of materials made available to me, as well as coordinating with writers and beating deadlines. Not to mention learning the wordpress back end of the website.

Well, I might not enjoy the clicks that bring me dollars, or rather, cents, but I am enjoying the fact that I am doing something that I love--writing, blogging [read: website management], and photography--and finally earning from it.

You will never know when an opportunity like mine knocks at your door. So I am giving away some tips:

1. Build your network - you will never know who will approach you and and ask you to write for them
2. Improve on your writing--tackle the unpopular and noteworthy subject matter and refrain from writing on anything that can be read elsewhere (e.g. Michael Jackson's death, Manny Pacquiao bout, etc.) Why? Because it will make you a better and well-rounded writer, and will prepare you to tackle different stories and subject matter later on. The website I am working on is all about culture and development--something close to my work, but learning about culture and its ramifications becomes the challenging job.
3. Learn about website management/ learn about editorial/ management skills
4. Learn about web design (aesthetics for a start will do, but it is much better if you learn about SQL programming, CSS, HTML, etc.)
5. Enjoy blogging [read: writing] and have patience.
6. Advertise yourself. facebook is one effective tool.
7. Patience is a virtue. The web designing process itself is a tedious job. The designing and redesigning stage will drain you or your programmer, but it pays to be open to criticisms and make constructive ones, too. Do not forget to praise your programmer if he did a great job.
   

So I am just proud to announce about www.devcomsync.com--my pet project.

Hope you visit the site. Comments in the articles are most welcome!


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NEW HOME: Embracing Wordpress

Finally, I gave in to a new blogger format which I have always wanted to have. I am very much comfortable with the Blogger format which I am using here in this blog, but my new project (which I will share soon!) is on a WordPress format. I had no choice but to learn the tricks f the trade. And only when I was familiarizing myself with the buttons and all, did I only realize that WP has become more user-friendly like my first love, Blogger. Back in 2007, I found the WP really, really hard to use especially when you are still starting. I could not understand how the widgets work back then.

However, the Blogger format is still much easier because you can learn the CSS easily, as well as change the layout, which I do often, hoping that it will make a better-looking blog layout.

Anyway, since I have already thousands of views in this blog, I decided not to transfer them. Otherwise, all of the years I have worked on it will be lost.

So here are my new blogs:

MY HOME: which aggregates all my blogs and other websites:



and

EXPLORED! which is my travel blog:





















Hope to see you there!

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Enjoying event photography

I know it would be too late if I blog about the much-talked about AKO MISMO advocacy and concert. So I am giving it a different slant, so that it would not appear like it was a long-overdue blog post, which was overtaken by events.

Anyway, now I cherish the fact that I was one of the official photographers of the event! Thanks to a friend who is directly connected to the conceptualization of AKO MISMO, which by the way is not politically motivated but a call for Filipinos to start CHANGE from themselves. I share this advocacy because since my college days in my psychology courses, we have always been inculcating during the homeroom facilitation classes and in counseling. Something like a Rogerian approach to counseling.

I have done events like the fiestas and festivals here and there, but it was my first time to shoot a concert. Anyway, I simply ran out of words to describe. it, but there is nothing more explicit than the photos I took during this event:

The commitment wall:


The people who believe in the cause:


The artists who graced the occassion:


and of course, my fellow Indios who documented the event:


...and I look forward to shooting more events in the future! {for free or for a fee - smile!}

You can see the rest of the photos HERE.

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